White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders allegedly plans to leave the White House by the end of 2018. Her deputy, Raj Shah, is leaving, too.

That's according to several unnamed White House sources, as reported by multiple media outlets. Neither Sanders nor Shah confirmed their departures. Sanders said on Twitter that she was attending an event at her daughter's kindergarten and is "honored to work for @POTUS."

Assuming the reporting is true, this would represent yet another significant defection from the Trump White House, according to CBS:

Over the course of the Trump administration, the White House has consolidated its workforce, eliminating jobs and assigning multiple portfolios of responsibility to individual staffers. Some positions have never been filled. Despite the smaller number of positions, the record-setting turnover rate has not slowed. Less than halfway through Mr. Trump's term, the turnover rate stands at 51 percent, according to the Brookings Institution. Turnover during Mr. Trump's first year in office was 34 percent—nearly four times higher than turnover during the first year of the Obama administration.

"There will be even more people leaving the White House sooner rather than later, laid off or just leaving out of exhaustion. And it is going to be harder to find good people to replace them," a source close to the administration told CBS News. "I do think they're going to have a harder time getting the second wave of people in than the first, because those people were loyalists, and [new] folks will have to be recruited and encouraged and then survive the vetting process. In addition to all of that, the president prefers to have a small communications staff."

It's not immediately clear who would succeed Sanders. She never enjoyed a particularly good relationship with the press, but neither did her predecessors, Sean Spicer and Anthony Scaramucci (though Scaramucci barely lasted a week). Defending the president's frequent misstatements can't be easy; even so, Sanders has a habit of dodging virtually all uncomfortable questions, dubiously claiming that Trump's position on the given issue is already clear.

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Two campus conservative groups are preparing for war. Young America's Foundation (YAF) circulated an internal memo warning staffers about the pernicious influence of Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of Turning Point USA (TPUSA). YAF, a 50-year-old organization, is the grandaddy of conservative student organizations, whereas TPUSA appeared on the scene just five years ago, capturing much of the energy and enthusiasm on the college right.

YAF's griping isn't just sour grapes. There are serious tactical and philosophical differences between the two groups. Kirk and his second-in-command, Candace Owens, have been credibly accused of working harder to advance their own cults of personality than their underlying ideological agenda. On any given day Kirk's Twitter feed mostly consists of Trump worship, while Owens courts controversy but can't handle criticism.

"[Kirk's] focus has always been on building his own brand, not strengthening the conservative movement," said the memo, which was obtained by The Washington Examiner's Philip Wegmann.

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London Breed won a special election to become the next mayor of San Francisco. Breed, a Democrat, will be the city's first black female mayor. She's also seen as an ally of the "Yes In My Backyard" (YIMBY) movement, which supports the construction of new housing developments in crowded urban environments.

That's good news, because San Francisco is in the midst of a massive housing crisis. There simply aren't enough homes for the people who want to move there for work. Repressive government zoning regulations—supported by existing residents who bristle at the idea of noisy, ugly construction—often make it very difficult for developers to meet the demands of would-be occupants.

"We are in a housing crisis and need to be producing more affordable housing at a range of income levels," Breed told a pro-growth activist group. "We should be removing barriers to constructing these desperately needed affordable housing projects to ensure they are not subject to endless appeals and delay, which too often result in these projects becoming more expensive to build, downsized or denied. We've already seen some people fighting to stop or make infeasible a 100% affordable housing project at Haight and Stanyan, which will replace a blighted McDonalds. I look forward to supporting this measure in June."

Meanwhile, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel (formerly Ronna Romney McDaniel, until that association became toxic for her), tweeted out a bizarre call for everyone to unite behind Trump or be crushed underfoot.

Complacency is our enemy. Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake.

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Every press secretary tries to manage the news cycle – or “lies,” if you will. But I find SHS particularly noteworthy in her contempt for the process. She seems to intentionally cultivate an ignorance that allows her to avoid answering questions. She insults reporters who don’t buy her most patent BS. In doing so, she really just conveys contempt for the citizens’ right to know what our president is doing and planning. I really don’t think she realizes that she’s shitting on all Americans, when she shits on the press.

“And the fact that he only pissed away half as much as his predecessor isn’t much comfort…?.”

No, it’s not.

Maybe, I’m too conspiratorial, but it seems very curious to me that his predecessor’s expenses were not a concern for the press. And I really don’t think someone who is so aggressive in stopping the EPA’s expansive authority would be confirmed by the Senate if Pruitt resigns. Which makes me think that all these stories are not just malfeasance on his part and more so the media and progressives (but, I repeat myself) looking for a reason to eliminate Pruitt, because he is a threat to the public employees.

Either way, Pruitt’s excesses are ridiculous nepotism. But, we certainly wouldn’t hear about them if he had “the right politics”.

“Maybe, I’m too conspiratorial, but it seems very curious to me that his predecessor’s expenses were not a concern for the press.”

Yes. The difference in the media’s attitude toward Trump and their attitude toward Obama is patently obvious to anybody but the most partisan of partisans. And I say that as someone who can’t stand Trump.

“The EPA administrator has announced he will end the ‘sue and settle’ scheme implemented by his predecessors. There’s a new day dawning at the Environmental Protection Agency. On October 16, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt announced that he is pulling the plug on the “sue and settle” strategy his predecessors used to impose new regulations and funnel large amounts of cash to their allies in the environmental movement”

Trump thinks draining the swamp is getting your people in the swamp. My only hesitation is that there is a clear campaign to get Pruitt removed, because of his policies. The foreign trips were a non-issue, since his predecessor spent more than double on the same trip. But, he’s an idiot for not realizing that he will be held to a different standard.

Quotes: Eric Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general, has long been a liberal Democratic champion of women’s rights, and recently he has become an outspoken figure in the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment… Four women… accuse Schneiderman of having subjected them to nonconsensual physical violence. All have been reluctant to speak out, fearing reprisal. But two of the women, Michelle Manning Barish and Tanya Selvaratnam, have talked to The New Yorker on the record, because they feel that doing so could protect other women. They allege that he repeatedly hit them, often after drinking, frequently in bed and never with their consent. Manning Barish and Selvaratnam categorize the abuse he inflicted on them as “assault.” Both say that they eventually sought medical attention after having been slapped hard across the ear and face, and also choked.

Haven’t we all been preconditioned to assume at least some low level corruption as a prerequisite for any government position such as Pruitt’s? I thought the whole sell for people like Pruitt was that he didn’t believe in the EPA’s mission, and that it’s better to have a lazy bureaucrat who is there for the perks rather than a true believer who would use the EPA as a vehicle to inflict more harm on individuals in the name of some righteous cause. But then again, I have no idea what Pruitt has or hasn’t done with his position besides purchase sexually suggestive pens and expensive doors due to selective coverage by most news outlets.

OK, I decided to actually read the link… I was totally mistaken. Now that I know about the lotion AND the pens, my imagination can do the rest. He’s gotta go… It’s lewd, lascivious, salacious, outrageous

I’m not going to disagree that Turning Points are sycophants for Trump, but I don’t remember this criticism ever being leveled against the Left when they made the president into a messiah. Not seeing a lot of Trump worship from the bulk of the Right. Well, that depends on what is being defined as “the Right”.

As I said. If you are talking about right-wing publications like National Review, Commentary, or the Wall Street Journal opinion page, I’d say you read more criticism than praise. But, you’d have to read these publications to have an honest assessment.

The same cannot be said for the NYT opinion page, WaPo opinion page, and The New Republic during the Obama administration

“We should be removing barriers to constructing these desperately needed affordable housing projects to ensure they are not subject to endless appeals and delay, which too often result in these projects becoming more expensive to build, downsized or denied. We’ve already seen some people fighting to stop or make infeasible a 100% affordable housing project at Haight and Stanyan, which will replace a blighted McDonalds. I look forward to supporting this measure in June.”

Seriously, SF can’t get much more retarded. They are only a city/county, state law prevents a lot of idiocy, and their own constipated housing crisis prevents much population growth. They are closer to peak retard then neighboring jurisdictions.

She might actually break some proggie old boys club strangle hold and fix a few things, regardless of how much else she fucks up.

She says some good things and then torpedos it all with things like “100% affordable housing project”. You know what a “100% affordable housing project” looks like in SF? Public housing. It’s affordable because you’re paying for it.

Well she’s from San Francisco. There’s most likely a 0.0% chance that she could get anything not insane accomplished. I hear that place is so fucked that it’s impossible to unfuck so who really cares what she says about anything.

Quote: The first number you see is 94% ? and your eyes pop with incredulity.

But it’s true: Almost every one of hundreds of women questioned in an exclusive survey by USA TODAY say they have experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault during their careers in Hollywood.

I don’t get this at all. Not the original post, and not the snarky concurrence.

The head of a political party says the members of the political party should rally around their highest elected official. When has that ever not been the case? Was there ever one instance where the head of the DNC didn’t call for the party to rally around their president? Did the DNC turn its back on Bill Clinton when he was accused of rape, sexual harassment, sexual assault, perjury, etc.? No, they closed ranks and twisted arms to ensure a party line vote on impeachment. That’s what political parties do.

And what crossed wire would cause the leap from “hey, support our president” to “that is a cult of personality”? It is a stupid slogan, but it shouldn’t be controversial. It is as inane and straightforward as any political slogan. And way less hippy-dippy, cult of personality that making an Andy Warhol ripoff poster of your leader with his chin held high, proclaiming him to be “hope” personified.

This stupid political slogan just says “lets get to work and make America great again”, a much more mundane and grounded goal that isn’t embodied in a person.

Well, there is the thing that the GOP’s previous two campaigns were essentially “hold your nose and vote for the RINO, at least he has an (R) after his name” and yet I don’t recall #NeverMcCain or #NeverRomney being a thing. So there’s certainly some hypocrisy on the part of some people there.

Which is not to say there isn’t a cult of personality around Trump, it’s just that this isn’t proof of it.

Prosecutors said McFarland, 26, began running the scheme late last year, several months after his arrest for defrauding Fyre investors out of $26 million. They also allege that he may have committed bank fraud and identity theft in the past few months.

This guy sounds pretty damned stupid. He’ll have to turn to politics to get back any credibility.

Every time it is reported that a member of the administration is leaving, it’s a good guess that they are most definitely not leaving the administration. This is a weekly occurrence and every time it’s wrong. It’s always the people that no one expects who leave this administration

She is probably the least insane of the lot. One was going to ’employ the homeless’ at a ‘fair wage’ to clean up the mess they make! Not only is it a broken window disaster, she’s going to pay them so they can break more windows! Oh, and the ‘blighted McDonalds’ was blighted with the bums camping in GG Park and using the bathrooms.

BTW, voting in SF is fast and easy! Unless Starchild’s on the ballot, Ignore the candidates for any and all offices. Vote “no” on all propositions. Even the ones claiming to ‘make things more transparent’ are sinecures for termed-out politicos.

I stopped voting in NYC about a decade ago but you raise a good point about propositions. We don’t get very many of them unlike wacky CA but yeah it’s probably wise to show up and vote against all of them.

“tweeted out a bizarre call for everyone to unite behind Trump or be crushed underfoot.”

That’s not what the tweet said, and in my opinion, not even implied. I would read her tweet as her advice on how to win in their next election. She’s basically saying, Trump is on a roll and is popular, jump on the bandwagon.

Yeah, as a non-republican who was on the “Trump is a moron” bandwagon at least a decade before anyone in politics, I don’t get it at all. I don’t see how anyone can find the notion that the head of the RNC would call for Republicans to support their party’s President as anything other than perfunctory.

Would anyone have questioned the notion that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz called on Democrats to support President Obama? You might not pay any attention to it, because a party chairman isn’t exactly a prime source for political opinions – but you wouldn’t be in any way surprised. That is kinda their main job, as far as things that happen in the public eye.

To me, that tweet reads the same as the union goon’s “that’s a nice X you have there, would be a shame if something were to happen to it” line. I’m guessing Robby has a similar interpretation. As he’s not a Republican it appears that he’s not interested in applying the principle of charity.

Ok, so I went back and re-read the tweet a couple of times trying to see where you guys are coming from.

If you just read the ending – Anyone not bracing the Trump agenda… will be making a big mistake – I can see how you could read it that way. It is pretty much the same word’s you’d use for “i’m about to punch you in the nose.” “if you touch my stuff, you will be making a big mistake”.

But the opening line is “Complacency is our enemy.” That completely negates this interpretation.

First, it talks about “our enemy”. Us. The RNC. And it talks about complacency being the enemy. Meaning that this is a call to action. Stop resting on your laurels. Don’t embrace the “hunker down until midterms” idea. Get out there and push the agenda forward. This is the path to success… etc.

This is what people are talking about when they say “taking things out of context.” The context is clear. It is not reasonable to claim that this is a threat of retaliation. That wouldn’t make any sense in the context of fighting complacency.

I’d say the cheerleaders outnumber the people that immediately rush to attack Soave for anything he posts.

Sometimes the criticisms are petty, like when he mentioned “good intentions” about the Michigan college program that the DOJ sued over. But, then again, I guess that is a perfect contrast of assigning intentions.

He heaps praise on anything and everything that can help him. So when someone agrees to come on his show, or do an interview, or pimp his book, he’ll tell everyone that this guy is the greatest thing ever.

It is a classic entertainment industry move. Listen to any radio show appearance, watch any entertainment interview show… they always cross-praise each other. And not faint praise…. over-the-top “your work in this movie was amazing!!” praise.

That’s what Trump does.

And what if you don’t play the way he likes? Well, you get the same over-the-top response, only in the negative. Now you are just the worst. You are fat and stupid and your show stinks.

So Kim was derisively “rocket man” when he was yanking Trump’s chain. Then he’s a bold leader the moment he starts playing the way Trump wants.

I don’t know if it changes Trump’s actual actions at all, but his public persona is 100% driven by tit-for-tat game theory on ass-kissing. You really can’t believe a single syllable of his praise or his condemnation. It only serves as a placeholder for “here, I’m helping you out, and you help me out.”

It’s pretty common sense reinforcement. When your dog is bad, you yell at it. When your dog is good, you praise it. Kim was bellicose and the American president ridiculed him. Kim talks about denuking and the American president compliments him. If “prestige” or “legitimization” is what the dictator of NK wants, the path for him to get it has been made clear.

Trump’s “tongue-bathing” Kim is part of his 7th-level Wizard Chess geniusosity. He knows all about “face” in Asian cultures and flattery, no matter how cheesily transparent, is expected and respected. It’s a brilliant move on his part to win Kim’s approval by getting on his good side. The art of the deal on full display here, and only Trump, the master of negotiation, could pull it off!

Now, had Trump taken an in-your-face aggressive approach to dealing with Kim, that would have been proof of Trump’s 7th-level Wizard Chess geniusosity, too. Trump knows Asians respect strength and forcefulness and showing any sign of weakness by kowtowing to and nakedly flattering Kim would have made Kim lose all respect for Trump and there never would be any hope for an agreement. That would be the art of the deal on full display as well, and only Master Negotiator Trump could have pulled it off.

Not to be out-done in the brain-dead lefty contest, several Peninsula towns are considering a ‘head tax’ as enacted and promptly repealed by Seattle. Some of the companies affected aren’t as large as Amazon and lack that sort of leverage, so:

“Employment tax in Silicon Valley city could spur small firms to move jobs” […] “SmugMug has called Mountain View home for more than a decade, since it moved out of the founders’ family home. But as the city considers a tax that would charge all but the smallest businesses an annual per-employee fee, that could change where the photo-sharing service plots its growth. Last week, SmugMug opened its first office outside of Mountain View in San Francisco. The 8,250-square-foot office at 390 Fremont St. is a home for its recent acquisition, rival photo app Flickr. The San Francisco outpost will have 25 to 30 employees, including some moving north.”https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/ Employment-tax-in-Silicon-Valley- city-could-spur-12992321.php

Of course, it’s not about the tax. Nope, ‘more time with the family’, doncha know? Who needs enemies in city hall?

Donald Trump should offer to buy all the nukes from NK. This would denuclearize them and give them some money to invest in building the country. If Kim just hoards the money, he comes out looking like the bad guy and still has no nukes. I don’t see how this could lose.

We sort of tried a variant of your notion – “we will pay you not to develop nukes”. It didn’t go so well.

But you’d think that variants on this theme would work with lots of these small dictators – your notion of just straight buying them out, or an economic argument of either being the king of a junkyard, or president of a gold mine.

Trump had some interesting things to say in a similar vein yesterday – things I’ve never heard a head of state say.

He talked about the prime location of North Korea between two economic behemoths – South Korea and China. He seemed to be talking them up on the notion that by ending all this militaristic BS and opening up their society, they could be in prime position to be a rather wealthy nation (with the unstated but implicitly obvious notion that the current regime would stand to benefit greatly from this prospect).

And the difference in this strategy would be that the flow of money is directly dependent on their following the behavior that you want – thereby giving you more leverage, not less.

I still doubt it will work… the NK regime does not seem to be constrained by what people in our society would call rational thought. But it does at least have its own logic that could actually lead to a lasting peace.

It comes down to self-ownership. You own exactly one body, and it’s yours to dispose of as you see fit, as long as your disposition of your self doesn’t impinge on the equivalent self-ownership right of others without their consent. Obviously, i’d expect anyone who cares about you to try to talk you out of it, but if you’re determined to be eaten, it’s ultimately your decision.

Meanwhile, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel (formerly Ronna Romney McDaniel, until that association became toxic for her), tweeted out a bizarre call for everyone to unite behind Trump or be crushed underfoot.

Complacency is our enemy. Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake.

Um, what she says there doesn’t look anything like what you think she said.